Pardew: Ashley deserves respect

Newcastle boss Alan Pardew has called on owner Mike Ashley's critics to give him some respect after watching his side maintain their unbeaten start to the season.

On the day that managing director Derek Llambias predicted the Magpies would break even during the current financial year after overturning huge operating losses, Pardew's team survived the sternest test yet of their right to be Barclays Premier League's top four in a 2-2 draw with Tottenham.

The Toon Army left St James' Park in celebratory mood after an enthralling contest, and Pardew urged Ashley's doubters to cut him some slack, saying: "I am hoping the owner is starting to get a little bit more respect."

Pardew continued: "I don't think we are ever going to win everybody over for Mike and Derek and maybe even myself, but at least you can logically look at it and say we are in a much better position than most Premier League clubs in terms of our financial position.

"We have an owner who doesn't want to go away. He wants to invest in the team, but he wants to do it in the right manner.

"We are working really hard, my scouting team and my staff, to try to bring in the best players we can on the finances we have.

"[Chief scout] Graham Carr, myself, [assistant manager] John Carver, we have assembled what we think is a team that is better than last year's. That's all we are at the minute, and let's hope we can improve from there."

Newcastle twice had to come from behind to deny Tottenham a fifth successive league win, and it was Shola Ameobi who came from the bench to snatch a point which extended their start without a defeat to 10 games in all competitions with four minutes remaining.

Pardew said: "We deserved something and it was important for the stadium and the fans because they could have gone away and thought, 'Well, perhaps we are a bit short'.